My throat felt dry enough to crack.
Every breath carried the bitter taste of stone dust and the sharp, suffocating stench of burning sulfur.
The smell clung to the back of my nose and sank into my lungs.
Whenever I inhaled too deeply, my stomach twisted violently, as if it were trying to force its way up through my throat.
Fine gray dust drifted through the air in lazy clouds.
It coated my eyelashes and gathered at the corners of my eyes, blurring my vision until the entire valley ahead looked unreal.
Everything was wrapped in a hazy, oppressive red glow, as though the cavern had been submerged in blood-colored light.
I moved quietly along the side of a gigantic stone pillar that had snapped in two.
The broken column leaned at an angle, its jagged upper half resting against the cavern wall.
I kept my back pressed firmly against its cold surface, using it as both cover and support.
Beneath my boots, the ground was cracked and uneven.
Heat breathed out from the fissures in slow, pulsing waves, making the air ripple and distort.
In the open space ahead, the Platinum Golem still stood like a colossal iron statue.
Its body was enormous, assembled from thick plates of pale metal that reflected the dim red light without truly shining.
The armor looked smooth and flat, almost polished, yet there was something utterly lifeless about it.
No expression, no hesitation, no sign that it felt pain or fear.
It simply stood there, heavy and silent, waiting for a target to reveal itself.
Across from it, the Ruby Boar scraped furiously at the loose gravel beneath its feet.
The beast was much smaller than the Golem, but it was no less terrifying.
Its body was broad and heavily muscled, covered in layers of crimson crystal that glowed with an intense inner light.
The red shell radiated enough heat to warp the air around it.
Looking at the boar through the haze was like looking at a creature beneath boiling water.
Its tusks were chipped and stained with dark blood.
Its eyes burned a furious red as it lowered its head and dragged one hoof through the stones.
Each movement sent tiny sparks skittering across the ground.
My right hand tightened around the hilt of the first Amethyst Iron dagger.
The weapon was surprisingly light.
Despite being made of metal, it felt almost weightless in my hand.
Its surface was cold enough to numb my fingers, like a piece of ice brought straight out of winter.
More importantly, it had none of the magnetic pull found in ordinary iron.
That was the key.
I narrowed my eyes and studied the boar’s flank while keeping one ear trained on the Golem.
The Ruby Boar relied on sight and instinct when it hunted.
It reacted to movement, blood, pain, and threats.
The Platinum Golem was different.
Its systems searched for magnetic fields and vibrations caused by metal.
It could detect ordinary weapons from a considerable distance, but Amethyst Iron did not respond to its senses in the same way.
*This dagger has no magnetism.* A thin smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.
*That means the Golem is completely blind to it.* I did not waste another second.
With a sharp flick of my wrist, I sent two daggers flying through the dust.
The blades cut through the air without making a sound that mattered.
The Golem did not turn.
Its sensors detected nothing unusual, and its huge body remained motionless.
To the machine, the daggers might as well have been falling leaves.
To the boar, however, they were very real.
The two weapons appeared as brief streaks of brilliant purple before striking their target.
*Thud.
Thud.* Both daggers sank into the thick crystal armor over the boar’s chest.
They did not penetrate all the way through, but the impact was enough to send a violent shock through its body.
The beast froze.
For a moment, it seemed confused.
Then its nostrils flared, and a harsh, furious snort burst from its lungs.
Its head jerked upward as pain spread through its chest.
The Ruby Boar had been attacked without seeing where the attack came from.
Its eyes snapped toward the Platinum Golem.
The Golem was the only possible culprit.
The boar’s muscles tensed.
It pressed its hooves into the ground, grinding gravel into dust, and lowered its head until the jagged tips of its tusks pointed directly at the metal giant.
Then it charged.
The sound was like an avalanche trapped inside the cavern.
Its hooves hammered against the stone, each impact sending a tremor through the ground.
Red light poured from its crystal shell as it accelerated, and the air around its body shimmered from the heat.
The Platinum Golem did not react.
The magnetic sensors buried inside its armor registered no pull from the approaching beast.
There was no metal target rushing toward it, no abnormal vibration that matched a threat, and no recognized attack pattern.
The Golem remained unaware of the danger bearing down on it.
When the boar was only a few steps away, the Golem finally moved.
Not to attack.
It merely turned its massive shoulder and began to lumber toward the darkness, apparently deciding that there was no target worth pursuing.
*Dream on.* My fingers tightened around the next dagger.
*I’m not letting you walk away that easily.* If the Golem withdrew now, the plan would collapse.
Worse, the enraged Ruby Boar would notice me instead.
Once it realized that the actual attack had come from the shadows, it would tear me apart without hesitation.
I needed to give the Golem a reason to fight.
Not just any reason.
I needed something its mechanical instincts could understand.
Blood.
Without waiting, I raised my left hand.
The skin there was still thin and pale from the regeneration process, barely strong enough to move properly.
I pressed the edge of the Amethyst Iron blade against my palm and cut deep.
Pain exploded through me.
It was immediate and vicious, a bright line of agony that shot through my hand, up my arm, and straight into my skull.
My vision went black at the edges.
For one terrible moment, I thought I might lose consciousness.
Then blood began to pour from the wound.
It was thick, hot, and frighteningly abundant.
It ran over my palm and down the cold purple-gray metal of the dagger.
I gritted my teeth and smeared the blood across the entire blade, coating it from hilt to tip.
Then I threw it.
The dagger arced through the smoky air and struck the lower part of the boar’s back.
It drove itself between two layers of hardened crystal and disappeared almost to the hilt.
The effect was immediate.
The core embedded in the center of the Platinum Golem’s chest flared to life.
Pale white light flooded through the cracks between its metal plates, bleaching the surrounding dust with an eerie glow.
The scent of fresh blood, combined with the magical energy clinging to the dagger, had finally activated the Golem’s artificial mind.
Its sensors recalculated.
The Ruby Boar was no longer classified as an irrelevant mass of crystal and stone.
It was now a moving source of fuel—an injured, bleeding creature carrying concentrated magical energy.
A target.
The Golem’s entire body shifted.
The ground trembled as it lowered its center of gravity.
Its thick legs bent, and then the giant launched itself forward with astonishing speed.
The cavern shook beneath its weight.
Both of its fists rose into the air, each one as large as a millstone, before crashing down toward the boar’s head.
The Ruby Boar twisted at the last instant.
The fist struck its shoulder instead.
Crystal shattered beneath the impact, and a burst of red fragments flew into the air.
The boar answered with a violent swing of its head, driving one tusk into the Golem’s side.
Metal shrieked against crystal.
The two monsters collided with enough force to send a wave of heat and dust across the valley.
Pieces of rock, broken crystal, and fragments of metal flew in every direction.
The Ruby Boar rammed forward again and again, while the Golem answered with slow but devastating blows.
I took several quick steps backward and pressed myself deeper into the shadow of the broken pillar.
Mammon drifted toward me.
His black form moved like smoke or a dark cloud suspended in the air.
As he approached, his shadow seemed to swell, spreading over the ground around my feet.
His red eyes stared down at my left hand, where blood was still dripping steadily from the open wound.
Then he looked directly at my face.
I leaned close to the darkness surrounding him and lowered my voice.
There was no time for long explanations, so I spoke quickly, laying out the important parts of the plan.
I explained how I would use the remaining magic in my daggers to create the initial detonations.
I told him how I intended to blind the boar and block its escape route, forcing it toward the Golem.
I described the timing required for the final attack and the chain reaction that would destroy both creatures at once.
Mammon listened without interrupting.
When I finished, he released a rasping laugh deep in his throat.
The sound was cold and unpleasant, like a needle being dragged slowly across bare skin.
The corner of his mouth curled upward into a strange, twisted smile.
For once, he did not mock me.
He did not curse me or point out the obvious danger of the plan.
He simply nodded once, his expression filled with unmistakable delight.
I turned my attention back to the battlefield.
The Ruby Boar had managed to push the Golem away, but only by sacrificing another section of its crystal armor.
The Platinum Golem staggered sideways, leaving a deep groove in the ground.
Its chest glowed brighter with every passing second.
I reached down and pulled three more daggers from my belt.
My hand was beginning to shake.
I could feel the exhaustion pressing down on me, turning every movement into a deliberate effort.
My left arm throbbed violently, and blood continued to drip from my palm.
Still, I forced myself to remain calm.
I inhaled as deeply as my burning lungs allowed.
Then I pushed the last scraps of my magical energy through my right arm.
The power traveled along my veins like molten wire.
It gathered in my shoulder, flowed down into my elbow, and finally poured into the cores of the three daggers.
The blades began to tremble.
Their faint violet glow deepened, becoming darker and more intense.
Purple light gathered around their edges, flickering like flames.
The metal vibrated so violently that the daggers buzzed in my grip, as if they were struggling to contain the energy inside them.
A few seconds more, and they would explode whether I threw them or not.
*This is it.* I stepped away from the pillar.
At that exact moment, the Ruby Boar was thrown backward by another strike from the Golem.
Its body hit the ground and skidded across the gravel.
It rolled once, then forced itself upright.
One side of its crystal armor was cracked, and black fluid leaked from the wound in its back.
Its head spun wildly as it searched for a path through the battlefield.
There was only one.
I moved first.
The first magic-charged dagger flew toward the boar’s face.
It struck the left eye socket and buried itself deep.
*BOOM!* The explosion tore through the beast’s eye.
Purple light flashed across the cavern, followed by a spray of blood and thick black fluid.
The Ruby Boar screamed so loudly that the sound seemed to shake dust from the ceiling.
It staggered sideways, clawing at the ground with its hooves while its head thrashed in blind agony.
It was now blind in one eye.
That was enough.
Before it could regain its balance, I threw the second dagger at the ground directly in front of it.
*CRASH!* The earth erupted.
Stone and dust blasted upward in a violent column.
The explosion carved a deep trench across the boar’s path, leaving a jagged ditch several body lengths wide.
Loose rock continued to fall into the gap as smoke and dust spread across the ground.
The injured beast stopped abruptly.
It could no longer see properly, and the path ahead had been destroyed.
Panic overwhelmed its instincts.
It spun around, searching for the only route that remained open.
The Ruby Boar found it.
Straight ahead, the Platinum Golem was already walking toward it.
The machine raised one enormous fist.
The joints in its arm groaned under the strain.
Cracks ran across the metal knuckles, but the Golem did not slow down.
It lifted the fist high above its head and brought it down toward the boar’s torn throat.
The boar charged at the same time.
The two creatures met in the middle of the valley.
The fist smashed into the side of the boar’s neck.
Crystal shattered, and the creature lurched sideways.
At the same time, the boar drove its tusk into the Golem’s chest.
The impact split the armor wider.
The plates across the Golem’s chest, already fractured from the earlier collision, opened enough to expose the intense light burning inside.
Heat poured through the gap.
The core beneath the armor was no longer pale white.
It had become a furious, unstable red.
My eyes fixed on the opening.
*There it is.* I stepped fully out into the open.
The heat struck me immediately, scorching my face and clothes.
Pain pulsed through my injured left arm, but I ignored it.
I had no strength left to spare, and the last of my Holy Power was already fading.
I gathered everything that remained.
Every last spark.
I forced the energy into the final Amethyst Iron dagger.
The weapon shuddered in my hand.
Its surface grew so hot that the leather glove wrapped around my fingers began to smoke.
The smell of burning leather mixed with the sulfur and blood already filling the cavern.
I pulled my arm back.
Then I threw.
The dagger crossed the short distance between us and slipped through the opening in the Golem’s chest.
Its blade drove into the exposed crystal core and vanished to the hilt.
For one second, the entire cavern seemed to freeze.
The dagger began to change.
The dark violet metal turned translucent, then almost completely clear.
It had pierced the Golem’s core, but it was not merely lodged there.
It was drawing energy from the crystal, draining the enormous power contained within it.
The light inside the Golem intensified.
The core strained against the dagger’s absorption.
Energy poured into the weapon faster than it could contain.
The metal began to crack with tiny, bright lines.
The Golem raised one arm, but the movement was sluggish.
Its systems were already collapsing.
White light leaked from every joint and seam in its armor.
The core grew brighter.
Brighter.
Then it reached its limit.
A wall of pure white swallowed everything.
The explosion erupted from the Golem’s chest with enough force to burn away every shadow in the cavern.
A blinding halo expanded outward, followed by a wave of heat that struck me like a solid wall.
My feet left the ground.
I was thrown backward as easily as a dry leaf caught in a storm.
My body slammed into the ground, rolled across the stone, and disappeared beneath a cloud of dust and ash.
The Ruby Boar was caught at point-blank range.
The Platinum Golem’s core shrank inward for a fraction of a second.
Then it detonated again, releasing a terrifying shockwave that ripped through the valley.
The metal giant’s body shattered.
Its armor burst apart into tens of thousands of fragments.
Red-hot pieces of iron flew in every direction like a storm of burning bullets.
They tore through the Ruby Boar’s crystal shell, piercing flesh, bone, and organs.
The beast had no time to scream before the combined force of the explosion and the flying metal fragments ripped it apart.
Crystal armor burst into glittering shards.
Dark blood sprayed across the ground.
Fragments of flesh and bone struck the surrounding walls, while twisted pieces of molten metal embedded themselves in the gray stone.
The entire valley was transformed into a slaughterhouse.
A rain of black blood, broken crystal, and torn meat splattered across the cavern, staining the walls a deep, violent red.
For several seconds, I could hear nothing but ringing.
Then sound slowly returned.
First came the hiss of cooling metal.
Then the distant crackle of fire.
Somewhere beneath the rubble, loose stones rolled down a slope and disappeared into the darkness.
My back had struck the base of another stone pillar.
I coughed violently, each breath scraping against my lungs.
My mouth tasted of blood, dust, and ash.
The heat gradually faded.
Cold air began flowing from the tunnels surrounding the valley, filling the space left behind by the explosion.
It brushed against my skin and carried away some of the smoke.
I drew in a ragged breath and pushed myself upright with my right hand.
My entire body felt bruised and broken.
My ears were still ringing, and my vision swam whenever I moved my head.
I lifted my hand and wiped some of the dust and blood away from my eyes.
Then I looked down at my left side.
The blast had taken its price.
The flesh that had only just regenerated on my left hand was gone.
The heat had burned it away completely.
My forearm ended in a blackened, charred mass of ruined tissue.
Smoke curled faintly from the edges.
Where my palm had once been, only a few small finger bones remained.
They were bare, black, and terribly fragile-looking.
They trembled faintly above the cold ash covering the cavern floor.
I clenched my teeth.
The pain was beyond words now, no longer a sharp wound but a constant, burning pressure that reached all the way to my shoulder.
My body wanted to collapse.
My mind wanted to shut down and escape the agony.
But I refused to cry.
I did not scream.
There was no point.
I raised my head and looked through the smoke as it slowly began to thin.
In the center of the valley, surrounded by scattered pieces of flesh, crystal, and twisted metal, two energy cores lay on the ground.
Both of them were glowing.
One belonged to the Platinum Golem.
The other had come from the Ruby Boar.
Their lights flickered against the bloodstained stone, brilliant and precious amid the destruction.
I stared at them for a long moment.
My body was ruined.
My left hand had been reduced to bone.
The pain was terrible, and I was too exhausted to stand without support.
But I was still alive.
And those spoils belonged to me.